4 Campus Recruitment Strategies That Work Every Time

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Cooler weather is in the air and not a moment too soon.  We take a break from the triple digit heat and enjoy a time filled with football, chili, knee-high boots, back packs, and sweaters. For many organizations, fall also signifies the time when recruiters begin interviewing and building relationships with university students who are graduating next spring or students interested in spring and summer internship programs.  Whatever your reason, fall is the perfect time to recruit top talent and fill your candidate pipeline. 

Candidate recruiting and building your candidate pipeline isn't easy.  It takes planning, research, and trial and error searching for methods that work on each individual college campus you recruit on.  For recruiters, who are looking for university recruiting strategies and channels that differ from the competition, here are three effective options sure to get your organization noticed by undergrads, interns, and recent grads alike.  

Out of the Box Campus Recruitment Strategies

• ·      Work with students associations.  While career services offers candidate databases and the opportunity to source and mine students directly, student associations offer a way to engage active the student population.  Recruiters can increase their prospective candidate pool by talking to students who have an interest in a certain career path but may not have the a traditional degree in business but have a work experience in marketing or graphic design. 

• ·      Target students with social media.  A 2011 Cisco World Technology report found that 81% of college students and young professionals are logging onto Facebook once a day.  Companies can run targeted ads towards these student populations and craft content that draws them in.  Connecting with young professionals on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter allows for students to learn about and engage your recruiters in unique and different ways.  Set yourself apart from your competition by using social media to stand out in your campus recruitment efforts. 

• ·      Take the hiring & selection process online.  Students have odd and unpredictable class schedules, social activities, and work.  Their busy lifestyle makes attending traditional in person campus recruiting events and job fairs a challenge, and recruiters miss out on meeting organized, qualified, and eager candidates.  By taking pieces of the hiring, candidate engagement and selection process online with a community or talent network, you are able to reach a wider student cross-section increasing the quality of the job seeker you attract.  This increases the number of touches in the candidate touch cycle and probability the young professional will research, learn about your organization, and engage with you. 

• Capture your talent, literally.  Avoid the hassle of accepting resumes or having your students fill out scraps of paper at job fairs.  Use mobile technology through the power of your iPad to capture talent in a moment's notice.  Students enter their contact information in under 30 seconds allowing you to connect with them easily after that college career fair.  Called TalentCatch, technology and tools like this make follow up and engagement a breeze especially when TalentCircles already offers these features for clients.  

Reach Qualified Candidates on Campus and Beyond

Whether it’s recent college grads or students seeking their first internship program, qualified candidates have options.  It’s important to engage and build relationships with them early and often.  Creative university recruitment strategies can help reach your target job seeker in new and different ways lowering your time to fill and making for happier hiring managers.  

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media.  She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @blogging4jobs. 

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